{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]],"date-time":"2025-10-17T14:13:39Z","timestamp":1760710419867,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,23]],"date-time":"2020-11-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1606089600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Having numerous melanocytic nevi increases melanoma risk. Few studies have enumerated nevi in children and re-examined them as adults. We aimed to determine if childhood nevus-counts predict nevus-prone adults, and further explore the relevance of host-factors and sun-exposure. Fifty-one Caucasian residents of Townsville (19.16\u00b0 S, Queensland, Australia) had full-body nevus-counts aged 1\u20136 and 21\u201331 years-old. Sun-exposure was determined from questionnaires. Children in the upper-quartile of nevus-counts acquired nevi more rapidly than those in the bottom-quartile (13.3 versus 4.7 nevi\/year; p &lt; 0.0005). Children sunburnt before 7 years-old acquired more incident nevi by adulthood (238 versus 126, p = 0.003) particularly if sunburn was severe (321 versus 157.5, p = 0.003) or erythema occurred annually (380 versus 132, p = 0.008). Fair-skinned, freckled children with some nevi \u2265 3 mm, solar lentigines, or a family history of melanoma acquired more incident nevi than children without these attributes. Nevus-prone adults exhibit distinguishing features earlier in life (&lt;7 years-old in Queensland) than has been shown previously. In addition to intervening with sun-protection counselling early enough to reduce risk, being able to reliably triage children into high- and low melanoma-risk groups may inform more efficacious and cost-effective targeted-screening in melanoma-prone populations. Further longitudinal research is needed to confirm that these attributes can reliably separate risk-groups.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph17228680","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,23]],"date-time":"2020-11-23T08:18:23Z","timestamp":1606119503000},"page":"8680","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Clinical Characteristics in Early Childhood Associated with a Nevus-Prone Phenotype in Adults from Tropical Australia: Two Decades of Follow-Up of the Townsville Preschool Cohort Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5091-4386","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ramez","family":"Barsoum","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Skin Cancer Research Unit, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville 4811, Australia"},{"name":"College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville 4811, Australia"},{"name":"Princess Alexandra Hospital, Queensland Health, Woolloongabba, Brisbane 4102, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5309-0773","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Simone L.","family":"Harrison","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Skin Cancer Research Unit, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville 4811, Australia"},{"name":"College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville 4811, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Cancer Australia. 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